Nope, never drank alcohol in my life. That's both good and bad.

To me the problem with reserve is the reserve utilization order is not published, viewable and accurate 24/7.

It needs to be more PBS like with a reasons report. Also the availability list is a mess. I saw someone on there with a 200+ score and got curious how they got there. well guess what, they're not even on the 88 anymore. They transitioned to another aircraft and are done with OE but for some reason they still show on the 88 list.

I also don't like that short call's version of reserve utilization order is chaotic day to day because it's up to the scheduler. I found this out the hard way recently and luckily my issue was corrected. And SC should've always had a raw score attached to it and I'm glad it soon will.

And you should be able to YS for a specific trip not just lowered yourself into any and every trip.

As to raw scores, what's wrong with that? Everyone gets points when you fly. Why should seniority come into play other than when raw scores are equal? And mind you, I'm senior reserve.

I get that it would allow senior pilots never to work or sit SC and all of that would be done many times over by junior pilots but that's the system we have now minus SC. My raw score is 1/3 to 1/4 that of those who sit reserve on weekends and under this new system for REG pilots to trade weekends if you touch a weekend day you're flying.

And for crying out loud, when you tell a scheduler that XYZ is not in icrew they shouldn't respond "what's Icrew?"

 

Reserve should be transparent, obvious as to what's happening at any time of the day.. ALWAYS, and respect seniority. If I WANT to fly, regardless of raw/croc/buckets/bullsqueeze, or whatever other Rube Goldberg system they come up with, I should be able to pick up a trip out of open time if my seniority will hold it. Period. I've said it before and I will say it again, the reserve system is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge as the root of all scheduling problems.

/rant

 

+1

I sat reserve most months for 3 years on my previous airplane. It kills me when I hear people say there's no seniority on reserve. Initial X-days are awarded by seniority, as well as X-day moves. With equal raw scores, trips are awarded or avoided by seniority.

I sat reserve pre-raw score, and that was worse. Try flying 65 hours while a guy from your new-hire class one number senior to you never gets called.

There certainly are some things to be fixed about our reserve system, but raw score is not a bad way to spread the pain.

 

I'm not a fan of separate categories for reserve and line holders. I did that pre-merger. I had the unfortunate experience of being a line holder without a line for three months in a row. I had some options. The first month I chose the permanent long call thing. I've never flown so much in one month in my life. The next two months I did straight reserve. It was frustrating to expect to be a line holder, then not get a schedule. Come to think of it, it was no better than what we have now. I don't understand why some people want it so bad. I'm pretty sure the only reason why we had it then was to keep the red book employees as line holders in the wide bodies while senior green book employees were stuck on reserve.

 

It's funny you say that because the separate categories came from the Republic (Green Book) side. Prior to the merger, NWA had single lists. The fact that Green book guy's were on reserve was the result of the SLI fences.

 

I dont mind the idea of picking up flying at will. That I would be fine with. If someone wants to fly then have at it, especially when it gets holiday time. I see this all the time, say guy #466 flies a lot because he has child care reasons to work weekends and has a raw of 160 going into thanksgiving, and guy #467 who bid weekends off has a score of 45. Now let's say both will fly for sure and both try to YS into the choice trips, well, guess who gets it? The guy who has worked the least. I think I'd be happier if that was straight seniority on a YS pick up.

As dirt said spreading the raw score spreads the pain more fairly when determining who has to fly when neither wants to.

 

Tsquare, you taking us all out to Spondivits?

Pay the man: Bettor to collect $375,000 after Cards win Series - Big League Stew - MLBBlog - Yahoo! Sports

 

I agree...very difficult...but doable, given the right team.

Furthermore, since we will have given the co. at least a bil/year for 8 years, by 01jan13, it is time for said co. to reciprocate.

Btw, we have DPA because our bargaining agent can't seem to say the restoration word in public. We would not have 25% of the group fractured, if DALPA would make it clear at every opportunity, that we will be seeking significant improvements in all areas of the CBA, period!

Unfortunately, I sincerely believe you will not see any statements from our current group, that are even remotely close to this. I hope I am proven wrong.

 

Wonder why the dog has that grin on his face...

 

What's fun is the 08:00 to 08:15 window when a reserve putz is trying to YS the trip he wants, but not get the trip he does not want. It's a fun game involving submitting your "if needed to fly" rotation then dropping the YS bomb at exactly the right moment, not knowing when the scheduling clerk will hit the button for the computer to cover the trip.